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[Zoomulator]

So I've looked around in the wiki for a good bit, and searched here in the forum too, but I can't find an answer.

Is it more likely that a wood or bone bolt break and shatter on impact than one made out of metal? Also wondering if the quality have any effect on this.

Could be a !SCIENCE! project if anyone's up for it!

P.S.
Would be interesting to know if the material the bolt hits makes a difference to it breaking. E.G. would the same type of bolt shatter less against a wooden target compared to one made out of stone?

[proxn_punkd]

I believe the breaking of ammunition is related to whether or not it falls Z-levels after impact. I remember there being an exploit to generate infinite amounts of rare metals by digging a trench and ordering marksdwarves to fire so their ammo falls into the trench and can be melted into raw metal again (melting an individual bolt or arrow results in more metal than was used to create it).

[NecroRebel]

While a piece of ammo that falls a z-level won't break, it's also possible that ammo that doesn't fall a z-level won't break, either. I don't believe this has anything to do with the bolt's material, though I don't know of any research that's been done on the matter. Apply SCIENCE!, perhaps?

[Sutremaine]

Bolts that get stuck in a creature are 'dropped' on death. I don't know if the bolt material makes a significant difference to how often that happens.

[Azated]

Ammo that drops a level is never damaged regardless of the material used, at least in my experience.

Like proxn said, you can use this to make more metal out of a stack of bolts than was used to create it in the first place. It takes a while to actually be useful, but it can definitely come in handy if your map lacks iron.

[NonconsensualSurgery]

A legitimate question - although I'd be surprised if the material made a difference on how often you got random unbroken bolts.

[Zoomulator]

Ammo that drops a level is never damaged regardless of the material used, at least in my experience.

Like proxn said, you can use this to make more metal out of a stack of bolts than was used to create it in the first place. It takes a while to actually be useful, but it can definitely come in handy if your map lacks iron.

Yeah, I'm aware of all that too. My question is for when it doesn't drop a level though. I'm not really in to exploits either...

A legitimate question - although I'd be surprised if the material made a difference on how often you got random unbroken bolts.

It'd make sense though, right? A wooden bolt hitting a stone would likely break and a metal bolt hitting wood would probably not. In reality that is.

!SCIENCE! indeed, but I don't know how to apply !SCIENCE! for best effect myself. I have no idea how to use the arena for testing. And if !SCIENCE! proves it false, I guess it's a good thing to put in the suggestion forums. In either case, if anyone's popular on the magmawiki, I'd like to see a note of the results there.